Battlefield 2142 Review

EA and DICE bring us conflict set 136 years into the future and it looks good, real good from a gaming point of view

EA and DICE bring us conflict set 136 years into the future and it looks good, real good …from a gaming point of view.

Acquire than outfit upgrades

Killed on German soil, how embarrassing

There’s a little back story explaining exactly how the World came into such a fierce conflict but rest assured it’s kept short and sweet. All we care for is the excuse for some new ways to maim and blow stuff up anyways right?

The Battlefield series has come along way in terms of graphical power alone and 2142 won’t disappoint you for eye candy. Especially when that said eye candy is a giant floating fortress (titan) you’ve been tasked to make go boom. Everything looks real slick and the futuristic designs of all the gear and weaponry, not to mention buildings and vehicles too, is enough to make any fan squeal with delight.

There are plenty of options to tweak for visual pleasure so lower end machines can disable the usual anti-frame rate culprits. Another area is audio which is fully supported by X-Fi, the latest creation from Creative Labs. 2142 supports ingame chat so organised teams can better strategise for games. Even some of the original score music makes its way into the new theme, of course it’s been “futurised” letting us know the Battlefield heart stills beats underneath all the new shine.

There has been a dramatic change in Battlefield as the single player experience is played down as insignificant and highly unrewarding. Multiplayer is where the true action and newest Titan mode is at. Now you must connect to the Internet and register with EA in order to play the game, ultimately if you want to play with what 2142 really has to offer it has to be online anyways.

A bold move as this alienates those without a connection or who don’t like playing against others over the Net. It also makes sure EA’s latest fad feature, Advertising Technology, works and generates income all the time when gamers play online. There have been some rumblings of Battlefield 2142 containing Spyware for instance; however it seems most likely that has been out of ignorance to this new “feature”.

No personal data is collected but basically billboards ingame will change or rotate between products/companies as you’re blasting alone. They aren’t intrusive, there’s no two minute interlude with shampoo commercials playing, its subtle advertising. Supposedly EA plans to use this extra generated revenue to lower the cost of titles for us gamers in the long term, I guess we’ll see the results by 2142 maybe hm?

A primary factor for compulsory online registration is to improve your soldier. You create a recruit who through successful matches will obtain points. When you accumulate enough you’ll be promoted to the next rank. You can also unlock rewards such as better weaponry or better battle gear. It’s a shallow RPG element, the more you play the better you are rewarded, well as long as your skills are up to the task.

My first Combat Pin

Blue on blue incidents, a big no

Bragging rights have become a new staple to Battlefield, there are forty standard ranks to climb through. There are even three additional top brass ranks which must been fought for continuously or they’ll slip away, Major General, Lieutenant General and Supreme Commander. Not to mentioned be able to collect enemy dog tags if you finish them with a blade.

New times, new soldier kits. Recon will offer the usual scout, sniper and Special Forces touch for the lone wolf types. Assault leads the anti-infantry charge as well as medical duties for fallen comrades. Engineers are the enemies of anything armoured either on the ground or flying above. Support offer ammo delivery, stealth detection, shields, sentry guns and other goodies.

You can customise your play style through the upgrades so if you really enjoy going head to head with other troops, over fighting armoured death mobiles, then you can invest your upgrades into new assault rifles.

Don’t forget to test drive a new Mech, yes they’re powerful and can make a man run in terror but they are in no way supreme. A few well place blasts or a rather nasty shot from an emplaced turret and you’ve got scrap metal. Fun though, real fun.

Conquest is the same as old Battlefields past; capturing command points around the map will slow down and hopefully accelerate the loss of points for the enemy. It’s a fantastic and well used mode of play that guarantees a constant challenge either from AI opponents or other players.

The new Titan mode really is something and the first time you see one gets that soldier blood pumping. A floating shielded fortress that isn’t shy about defending itself. Inside the enemy commander barks his orders, safely tucked away from harm. The objective is simple in nature, destroy that Titan, but the execution of that order is somewhat interesting and relatively perilous. You need to use ground weaponry to punch through that shielding, and then you could board that Titan and detonate its core. Boom!

It’s certainly a unique new feature and one that gets a lot of attention; it’s great that DICE have been able to add something fresh as well as a more personalised touch to soldiering for Battlefield 2142.

Sadly at the moment there has been a hick-up with the PunkBuster system designed to kick out the cheaters. It seems to have gone rogue like some Terminator-styled AI and boots players for absolutely nothing. I saw the ingame news ticker item letting all players know they’re working on it. I myself was made casualty in this overzealous crusade, I was booted for the heinous crime of killing an enemy soldier.

Limited single player options

Don’t annoy him, or her, or it

Rampaging counter-measures aside; Battlefield 2142 is the latest and greatest release in the series and is well worth every pound/dollar/euro. The fact that it’s online only helps it keep an active community with plenty of rewards and opportunities to scream a boastful war cry for.

Top Game Moment:

TOP GAME MOMENT

Claiming my first dog tag after having knifed a man to his digital demise, Geneva Convention that – HA!